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W. D. HARTSHORNE.

TEXTILE ART.

APPLICATION FILED DEC. 1. 1916. RENEWED APR. 14,1919.

1 13,594, Patented Aug. 19, 1919.

2 SHEETS-SHEET s BY Q I M ATTORNEY W. D. HARTSHORN E. TEXTILE ART.

APPLICATION FlLED DEC. 1. 1916- RENEWED APR. I4,1919. 1 13,594, Patented Aug. 19,1919.

2 SHEETSSHEET 2. PRIOR ART. 45

. tcristics, and properties.

istics and propertles eventuate 1n corre- WILLIAM D. HARTSHORNE, OF METI-IUEN,

CORPORATION, OF LAWRENCE, MASSA MASSACHUSETTS, ASSIGNOR TO THE TEXET CHUSETTS, A CORPORATION OF MAINE.

TEXTILE ART.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Aug. 19, 1919.

Application filed December 1, 1916, Serial No. 134,363. Renewed April 14, 1919. Serial No. 290,107.

primary purpose of my invention is to provide a novel method for the manufacture of yarn in which method a strand of long staple material and a strand of short staple material, each separately formed preferably to the state called roving, are so combined in the drafting process as to permit and enable each to so support the other through the drafting and spinning operations as to produce a yarn having essentially novel charac- These characterspondingly evidenced novelties of structure in the thread and fabrics formed therefrom, so that the fabric also is new in appearance, in its feel and in its behavior under the various finishing processes of the industry.

My novel method is of special utility in the production of yarn, thread and fabrics in which cotton roving and wool roving are combined in fixed and definite proportions, depending only upon the hank size of the rovings used and I accomplish the desired result by-treatment in apparatus arranged specially by me, to form from the rovings an article which is essentially new in the art of producing the wool cottonmaterials as at present known, but I wish it to be understood that I contemplate the utilization of my improvements in any field for which they are adapted by their nature.

An important object of my 1I1Vel'1t1OI1'iS to lead through the drawing rolls a cotton roving and a wool roving in such close j uxtapositiomand supported so freely 1n the ratch space, that a marriage occurs Wh1ch causes the two strands of roving to be mutually self-supporting, and to be drawn perfectly together and spun into an even thread.

The resultant yarn is full and soft, and presents its wool and cotton elements in very when the compound wool and cotton yarn is twisted to form a thread of two or more ends, or is knitted or woven into a fabric,

not only is the resultant product softer and more agreeable to the touch by reason of the more frequent and regular presentation of its wool content at its surface than is possible with existing methods of production, but also the normal tendency of the wool to mat and felt, under such finishing operations as the fulling and analogous processes, is resisted to a notable degree, so that for the first time it is possible by this invention to produce a fabric having the characteristic cheapness which a large cotton content and the single spinning operation affords, together with a full-wool feeling, and yet remaining practically constant in area under ordinary conditions of Wear and treatment.

I prefer, in carrying my invention into effect, to employ 'a roving of wool and a roving of cotton each of which has been produced vunder the conditions ordinarily suitable for the best preparation of good roving in the wool mill and the cotton mill respectively, the rovings having respectively a slight but sufiicient twist, say the usual preparatory clockwise twist, and for the purposes of carrying my invention into effect the bobbins may be mounted as usual upon the creel of any suitable spinning frame, such as the ordinary worsted frame, and the strands of roving are preferably fed together through suitable guides to the usual back and front drawing rolls and thence toany suitable spindle, these parts requiring little or no change, for my novel method resides primarily in a radical modification of the mode of passing the roving through the ratch space between the drawing rolls.

The essentially novel feature of my improved treatment, as already implied, is the marriage of the rovings in the ratch space as they are fed together, in close juxtaposition, from the back drawing rolls to the front drawing rolls, and this marriage involves a counter-twist of the rovings about each other in a direction opposite to the primary twist given to the rovings in their preparation, and preferably though not necessarily opposite also to the direction of twist imparted to the combined rovings as they are spun together upon passing from the front drafting rolls to the spindle Accordingly, if a roving of wool w1th a proper slight clockwise twist, and a roving of cotton, also with a proper slight clockwise twist, be drawn together through a ratch space in which, according to my 1nvention, the combined rovlngs are left substantially free between the back and front rolls, the strands immediately begin to wrap around each other as soon as they come through the back rolls, appears as though turning from the left over to the right, when looking down upon the strands, is occasioned by the untwlsting effect on the strands due to the process of drafting; and is suflicient to cause the two strands to be mutually self-supporting; the combined rovings being drawn perfectly together and spun into an even yarn at any suitable draft.

I prefer to omit from the ratchspace only the upper carrier rolls to permit the free counter-twisting-action above described, but

if found desirable other means than the usual under carrier rolls may be provided beneath the combined rovings to yield a certain support, such as a stationary carrier plate or other suitable device.

It is to be observed that whether or not the countertwist is taken out in the spinning operation, or added to, my novel compound yarn thus spun from rovings married in the draft, with a countertwist, possesses characteristic qualities and propert es which permit it to be differentiated readily from the well-known combinations of wool and cotton heretofore produced, such as (1) the ordinary mixtures of wool and cotton as blended in the uncarded state in the making of wool substitutes; (2) the same class of materials blended at some subsequent point after carding and before spinning, but still producing a yarn in form like a woolen thread; and (3) the so-called Merino yarns which are very carefully blended mixtures of wool and cotton in various proportions, which may be subsequently spun on a mule, as in the French system of spinning worsted yarn; (4) my improved yarn differs also from a form of yarn very desirable for some classes of manufacture, called plated or union yarn, in which the worsted is spun around an already spun cotton thread; the latter not passing through the back drafting rolls of the ordinary worsted spinning frame, either cap, flier'or ring, on which this class of work is usually done; (5) and it likewise exhibits differences from a form of yarn in which two or more spun threads of worsted and cotton are twisted together for fancy effects, or for special purposes; and (6) it differs from the form having two or more spun threads of worsted and of cotton which are often knitand this twist which ted or woven together without having been twisted together.

In the case of the Merino yarn, there are two general classes. In one the blending is usually done as one of the stages preliminary to the drawing process, on specially designed machinery, either with or without the independent carding and combing of both the worsted and the cotton slivers, and it is possible on this system, owing to the relative size of the drafting rolls and their capacity for'close adjustment, both in the drawing frames and on the spinning frame, to handle this relatively long and short length of staple without plucking. In the other class, by special machinery the longer fibered wool is out into lengths approximating the cotton, and then both may be carded, or carded and combed, to ether, so that the material may then be handled upon properly arranged cotton machinery. The length of the staple is, however, somewhat unequal, in spite of the effort to make it uniform, and a difficulty attends the effort to insure the admixture of worsted in exactly the quantities desired, so that frequently much of the worsted is practically lost in the operation and perhaps only a trace of worsted appears when the fabric is tested critically.

In both cases, the special nature of the preparation is a source of expense which mil-itates against the general use of Merino yarns, as is also the case with the plated yarn where the expense of spinning the cotton yarn, around which the worsted is to be thereafter spun, adds materially to the cost of the product; so that the combination may be but little cheaper than if made of all wool, though it sometimes has special advantages that may warrant the expense.

In fabrics embodying yarns comprising one or more threads of worsted and cotton spun inde endently previous to their comblnation t ere is usually a hard feeling due to the more tightly twisted character of the threads, and while this may not be a disadvantage for some uses, there are many instances in which it is recognized as a sufficiently serious drawback to make their use quite undesirable and these are instances where a two-roving yarn comprising one roving of relatively long wool and one roving of relatively short cotton, presents the full, soft effect which is a great desideratum.

Where there is an extreme difference in length of staples, however, it has not heretofore been supposed practicable to spin well together two rovings, one made of short wool and one of long wool, much less a roving of cotton with a roving of worsted of any length of staple, because the carriers in the ratch are set so far apart to handle the longer staple that the shorter breaks down, while the longer portion, if there is twist enough being put into the yarn, will continue to spin, leaving the shorter to catch and wrap around either the top or bottom carriera serious setback to the spinner.

In the case of long wool and short or long cotton the effort is immediately abortive.

The above disadvantages of expense and diificulties in production have been obviated by my improvements and the various features of my invention will be fully illustrated and described in the accompanying drawings and specification and pointed out in the claims.

In the drawings:

Figure l is a View of a diagrammatic character, showing apparatus arranged in accordance with my invention to carry into effect my novel method for the production of my novel yarn, the same being shown in elevation, partly in section;

Fig. 2 is a fragmentary view on a larger scale, in plan, of a portion of the apparatus shown in Fig. 1, with the strands of rovings being drafted and yarn in place.

Fig. 3 is a View in plan of a piece of fabric composed of my improved yarn, of which a portion is shown as under a magnifying glass to exhibit more clearly the characteristic structure; while Fig. 4 shows a thread comprising two strands of the yarn of Fig. 3 twisted together in one direction; and

Fig. 5 shows a thread comprising two strands of the identical yarn of Fig. 1 twisted in the opposite direction from those of Fig. 4, illustrating the notable difference in appearance due merely to change in the direction of twist;

Fig. 6 is a view similar to Fig. 3, illustrating a fabric of the prior art for the purpose of comparison, the same comprising a thread of Wool and a'thread of cotton twisted together and then knitted into the fabric;

Fig. 7 is a similar prior art illustration in which the fabric is knitted from a thread of wool and a thread of cotton associated but not twisted together;

Fig. 8 is a similar prior art illustration of the so-called Merino yarn knitted into a fabric; and

Fig. 9 is likewise a prior art illustration of a plated yarn comprising a previously spun strand 72 of cotton having a strand 73 of wool spun upon it subsequently, and then knitted.

In the embodiment of my invention selected for illustration and description to permit ready and complete understanding of my improvements, the part designated by the reference numeral 1 is a spool of roving,

which may be of any suitable form and structure and carried by any suitable support 3, as for example the creel of a wellknown type of worsted-spinning frame, the material 5 on this spool being considered as a roving of long staple wool, for purposes of this description, while the spool 7, carried by the creel member 9, may be considered to contain a roving of relatively short staple mate-rial 11, such as cotton, each of these rovings preferably havin been prepared with a slight clockwise tWISt, as indicated.

From the spools l and 7, the rovings 5 and 11 are shown as led through a guide 13, which may be of any suitable structure, being shown as of well-known form, to a pair of rolls 15 which may be considered as the back rolls of the usual drafting ratch of the spinnin frame, and thence the rovings are led to e usual front drawing rolls 17, the intermediate stretch of the rovings 5 and 11 being shown as countertwisted relatively to the twist in the portions of the rovlngs upon, and adjacent to, the spools l and 7 this countertwist being effected by the drafting of the combined rovings, which are thus wrapped together or married and yield mutual support each to the other, until the combined roving passes through the front drafting rolls 17 and emerges at 21 where it is spun and wound upon the bobbin 23 carried by the spindle 25, passing therethrough through the thread guide 27 mounted on the frame member 29.

If desired, there may be provided a suitable carrier means 31, 33, below the portion of the rovings undergoing the countertwisting between the front and back drawing rolls, the member 31 taking the form of a carrier roll of well-known form while the member 33 is a simple table, for the same purpose, either or both or nothing at all being used as found desirable.

In Fig. 2 I have shown in plan view, on an enlarged scale, the back and front drafting rolls, with the countertwisting portion of the rovings 5 and 11 therebetween, this figure showing most clearly the direction of twist of the rovings respectively, at their different portions, with the yarn 21 somewhat enlarged.

Fig. 3 illustrates my novel yarn 21 on an enlarged scale as in Fig. 2, and also shows on this scale at 24, part of a piece 35 .of fabric knitted from the aforesaid yarn, the purpose of thismagnified detail being to reveal the full, soft effect exhibited by this yarn and its fabric, both of which constitute novel features of my invention and which I claim as such. It is to be observed that the uniform interconvolution of the cotton 11 with the wool 5-serves to maintain this full, soft structure even under such treatments as fulling, so that the fabric and its yarn do not shrink as do the existing Wool-cotton compounds.

Fig. 4 is a view on the same scale as Fig. 3 of two strands or ends of the yarn 21 twisted together, and shows accurately the chain-like efl'ect produced when two of these strands are twisted counterclockwise, the soft, full effect being still maintained, while in Fig. 5 the identical two strands 21 twisted together clockwise present a specifically different appearance, due to a certain twisting up action on its components 5 and 11.

Throughout the drawings, the materials may be differentiated by their color, black being selected for the wool, while the cotton is leftuncolored, this arrangement of colors being selected for the purpose of illustration, asit is to be understood that the materials may respectively be colored as desired.

In order to furnish a means of comparison and clear differentiation between my improved yarn and fabric, and the principal combined wool and cotton yarns and fabrics known in the textile art, I have shown in Fig. 6 a small piece of fabric L5 knitted from a thread 41 comprising a spun strand 42 of wool and a spun strand 43 of cotton, the corner 44 of the fabric being magnified to show clearly the compact, relatively hard nature of the fabric 15 as compared with the full, soft cloth at the similarly magnified pant of my improved cloth shown at 24 in Fig. 3.

Fig. 7 shows a similar fabric 55 knitted from a spun strand 52 of wool and a spun strand 51 of cotton, associated but not twisted together and exhibiting at 54 a very beautiful effect which I am able to reproduce at much less expense, not only in the manufacture of the yarn, but also in the knitting process, because my improved thread does not break down so easily.

In Fig. 8 I have shown at 65 a fabric knitted from a Merino yarn 61, comprising cotton staple 62 and wool staple Q3, blended in the preparatory stage as already described briefly, and subject to the disadvantages noted.

Fig. 9 shows a fabric knitted from a plated yarn 71 comprising a cotton strand 72 spun previously, and thereafter provided with a strand 73 of wool which is spun about the cotton strand, the latter not being led through the back rolls with strand 73, as it constitutes a distinct entity, and is subject to both the disadvantages of hardness and expense, in the same manner but not to the same degree, as the fabrics 45 and 55, when compared with my improved fab' ric None of these fabrics of the prior art exhibits the full, soft and non-shrinkable qualities to the same degree as does my improved product and none of them can be produced as economically as can a fabric be produced from my yarn with its simple operation of spinning the long staple wool with the short staple cottonin a single operation. For the sake of brevity I designate as wholespun a yarn thus spun,

The claims in the present patent relate to my novel product, while theprocess is claimed in a divisional application Serial No. 166,600. filed May 5, 1917, and my novel apparatus is claimed in another divisional application, Serial No. 166,601%, filed May 5, 1917.

Having illustrated and described thus fully my invention, and suitable means for carrying the same into effect, I wish it to be understood that I do not limit myself tothe specific materials and construction selected for illustration and description, nor in general do I limit myself othenwise than as set forth in the claims read in connection with this specification.

lVhat I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

1. As a new article of manufacture, a wholespun thread spun directly from roving composed of a plurality of strands one of a. relatively long fiber or filament such as wool, and another of shorter fiber or filament such as cotton, each strand having a distinct entity and said strands being regularly involved in said thread to impart mutual support.

2. As a new article of manufacture, a wholespun thread spun directly from roving composed of a 'plurality of strands one of wool and one of cotton, said thread having the fibers of its constituent strands arranged in substantial parallelism while said strands constitute distinct entities, said strands being involved in regular convolutions to constitute a product presenting peripherally the full soft effect and wearing qualities characteristic of wool, with such frequent support from the cotton strand as to maintain a constant linear standard for the thread during the process of manufacture and in use.

3. As a new article of manufacture, a twisted plural ply thread of which component threads are wholespun threads spun directly from roving and each comprising a plurality of strands, said strands being eventually colored differently to constitute readily distinguishable entities and said component wholespun strands having regularly alternating convolutions of contrasting color serving in their twisted plural ply relation to cause said composite thread to present the effect of a parti-colored chain.

4. As a new article of manufacture, a fabric comprising iwholespun threads spun directly from roving composed respectively of strands one of a relatively long fiber or filament such as wool, and another of shorter fiber or filament such as cotton, each strand having a distinct entity, and said strands being regularly involved in said thread to impart mutual support.

5. As a new article of manufacture, a fabric comprising wholespun threads spun directly from roving each composed of a. plurality of strands, one of wool and one of cotton, said threads having respectively the fibers of their constituent strands arranged in substantial parallelism while said strands constitute distinct entities, said strands being involved in regular convolutions to con stitute a product, presenting peripherally the full, soft effect and wearin qualities char- 10 acteristic of wool with such requent support from the cotton strands as to maintain a constant area for said fabric during the process of manufacture and in use.

Signed at Boston, in the county of Sufl'olk and State of Massachusetts, this 17th day of 15 November, 1916.

WILLIAM D. HARTSHORNE. Witnesses:

WALTER CoULsoN, DAVID F. KEEFE. 

